Overview
Florence
Italy
RVF 189
Accademia Fiorentina, Florence
Italy
Description
8o; A8-B8, C10; [26] fols.
paper; Petrarch’s poem in italic type and lecture in roman type; no printed numbering; single lines or small sections of Petrarch’s poems set on left, with prose text of lecture distributed across the page beneath each of them; title within architectural frame.
LA SETTIMA | LETTIONE DI M[ESSER] | PIETRO ORSILAGO | DA PISA | Sopra il Sonetto del | Petrarca | Passa la naue mia colma d’oblio. | [Medici’s coat of arms] | IN FIRENZE. MDXLIX | Con Privuilegio
A1r: title page;
A1v: blank;
A2r-A2v: Pietro Orsilago’s dedicatory letter to Cosimo de’ Medici (‘All’illustriss[imo] et vero signore il signor Cosimo Medici duca di Fiorenza etc. A Pisa’);
A3r-C10v: Orsilago’s academic lecture on RVF 189 (<inc> Anchora che ’l passaggiero più, e più volte da le torbide, e tempestose onde marine fuor d’ogni sua speranza à saluamento; <exp> pongo fine à questi miei lunghi ragionamenti).
Copy Seen
John Rylands Library
Manchester
United Kingdom
The lecture provides a word-by-word paraphrase and exposition of the sonnet focusing on the metaphors and poetic images used, often elucidated by cross-references to other Petrarchan texts and to classical philosophers (Plato and Aristotle) and authors (Homer and Seneca). The lecture starts as a passionate speech describing a metaphorical journey before introducing Petrarch’s sonnet. Authors mentioned include Homer, Aristotle, Seneca, and Cino da Pistoia.
RVF 189 is printed at fols. A6v-A7r. Other Petrarchan texts mentioned include: RVF 355 (A7r and C9v); RVF 366 (A7v); RVF 365 (A8r); RVF 28 (A8v and C10r); RVF 323 (B1r); RVF 235 (B1v and C5r); RVF 80 (B4r, C2v, C9r and C10r); RVF 129 (B7r); RVF 264 (C1r); RVF 240 (C1v); RVF 178 (C2r); RVF 88 (C5v); RVF 73 (C6r); RVF 132 (C6v); RVF 105 (C7v); Triumphus Eternitatis 1-6 (C8v); RVF 62 (C9r).
Kennedy 1994, 292